Abstract:
In collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) climate stations were installed at six locations in the Ross Sea Region including Scott Base, Marble Point and Bull Pass all in the summer of 1998-1999, Mount Fleming in 2001-2002, Granite Harbour in 2002-2003 and Minna Bluff in 2002-2003, Don Juan Pond 2010-2011 and Bull Pass 2011-2012. These stations make continuous ... atmospheric and soil climate recordings to provide information for comparison of soil climatic attributes with those from Arctic regions, to help understand the impacts of global climate changes on cold region soils and permafrost. New Zealand took over the annual maintenance and data collection from climate stations in the Victoria Valley in the 2001-2002. Each station monitors soil moisture, soil temperature and salinity to depths of 1.2 m. Measurements of atmospheric variables include air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and wind speed and direction. MRC temperature probes were installed at depths of 2 cm to 1.2 m at Minna Bluff and Granite Harbour (2002-2003). Measurements are made at 20 minute intervals and averaged and recorded every hour. In the 2005-2006 field season, in collaboration with Dr Mauro Guglielmin of the Italian Antarctic Program, boreholes up to 30 m in depth were drilled in the vicinity of our soil climate stations at Marble Point, and Bull Pass. The data logger records temperature every 6 hours from a string of 16 thermistors (Campbell 109) positioned at various depths down the boreholes up to 29 m.

Quality
Measurements are made at 20 minute intervals and averaged and recorded every hour. Data is downloaded annually from automatic stations. Specifications for each data station measurements is described on the website.

Access Constraints
The data requires Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word to open files and is freely available.